⭐ Please star us on GitHub to promote the project!
Cubic spins up Linux virtual machines on Linux, macOS and Windows with a single command.
Every distribution comes as a prebuilt cloud image and is ready to use within
seconds, so you skip the long installation. Cubic keeps things simple and secure
by acting as lightweight glue over proven tools. No privileged system service is
required and every VM runs as your normal user, so you never need admin or root
rights.
Cubic is built on top of QEMU, EDK2, official cloud images and cloud-init.
One command takes you from nothing to a shell inside a fresh Linux VM. The images are official and verified, downloaded straight from each distribution. Every machine is a real VM, so you get stronger isolation than containers can offer. The same workflow runs on Linux, macOS and Windows across amd64 and arm64. No privileged system service is required and you never need admin or root rights.
Cubic fits a lot of everyday workflows:
- Spin up disposable VMs that are ready in seconds and easy to throw away
- Compare many Linux distributions side by side on any host
- Develop and test across distributions and CPU architectures
- Try or build software without polluting your host
- Run untrusted or experimental software inside an isolated VM
- Reproduce CI or production Linux environments locally
- Run local services such as HTTP servers and databases with port forwarding
- Simple command-line interface
- Supports the following guest OS:
- Alma Linux
- Arch Linux
- Debian
- Fedora
- Gentoo
- OpenSUSE
- Rocky Linux
- Ubuntu
- Supports the following host OS: Linux, macOS, Windows
- Supports amd64 and arm64 CPU architectures
- Supports hardware acceleration with KVM (Linux), Hypervisor (macOS), and Hyper-V (Windows)
- Daemonless design which does not require root privileges
- Written in Rust
A virtual machine instance can be created with a single command. This example
creates an instance from a Ubuntu image with the name quickstart.
$ cubic run quickstart --image ubuntu:noble
Welcome to Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS (GNU/Linux 6.8.0-101-generic x86_64)
* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com
* Management: https://landscape.canonical.com
* Support: https://ubuntu.com/pro
This system has been minimized by removing packages and content that are
not required on a system that users do not log into.
To restore this content, you can run the 'unminimize' command.
The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.
cubic@quickstart:~$
Use cubic images to list all supported images.
Ubuntu (Snap)
sudo snap install cubic && \
sudo snap connect cubic:kvm
macOS (Homebrew)
brew install cubic-vm/cubic/cubic
Windows (winget)
winget install cubic-vm.cubic
Others (Cargo)
Install the Rust toolchain and then build Cubic:
cargo install cubic
Cubic needs QEMU and its UEFI firmware on the host. Install them with your package manager:
# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install qemu-system qemu-utils ovmf qemu-efi-aarch64
# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install qemu-system-x86 qemu-img edk2-ovmf edk2-aarch64
# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S qemu-full edk2-ovmf edk2-armvirt
# openSUSE
sudo zypper install qemu qemu-tools qemu-ovmf-x86_64 qemu-uefi-aarch64
# macOS
brew install qemu
# Windows
winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU
See the install instructions for more information.
Cubic has a simple CLI:
$ cubic --help
Cubic runs Linux virtual machines on Linux, macOS and Windows with a single
command.
Every distribution comes as a prebuilt cloud image and is ready to use within
seconds, so you skip the long installation. Cubic keeps things simple and secure
by acting as lightweight glue over proven tools. No privileged system service is
required and every VM runs as your normal user, so you never need admin or root
rights. Cubic is built on top of QEMU, EDK2, official cloud images and
cloud-init.
Examples:
Create a new VM instance with:
$ cubic create example --image ubuntu:noble
Open a shell in the VM instance:
$ cubic ssh example
Alternatively, use `run` to execute the above commands in a single command:
$ cubic run example --image ubuntu:noble
Show all supported VM images:
$ cubic images
List previously created VM instances:
$ cubic instances
Show information about a VM instance:
$ cubic show <instance>
Execute a command in a VM instance:
$ cubic exec <instance> <shell command>
Transfer files and directories between host and VM instance:
$ cubic scp <path/to/host/file> <instance>:<path/to/guest/file>
See `cubic scp --help` for more examples
For more information, visit: https://cubic-vm.org/
The source code is located at: https://github.com/cubic-vm/cubic
Usage: cubic [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]
Commands:
run Create and start VM instances
create Create VM instances
instances List VM instances
images List VM images
ports List ports for VM instances
show Show VM images and instances
modify Modify VM instances
console Open VM instance console
ssh Connect to VM instances
scp Copy data between host and VM instances
exec Execute commands on VM instances
start Start VM instances
stop Stop VM instances
restart Restart VM instances
rename Rename VM instances
clone Clone VM instances
delete Delete VM instances
prune Clear caches
completions Generate shell completion scripts
Options:
-v, --verbose Increase logging output
-q, --quiet Reduce logging output
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
See CONTRIBUTING.md for instructions on setting up a development environment and building the project.
We are actively looking for help to improve Cubic. You can help in various ways:
- 👧 Increase Cubic's user base by installing and using it!
- ⭐ Star us on Github to promote the project!
- 🪲 If you found a bug or you are interested in a feature, please create an issue on Github!
- 👷 If you are a developer and you want to submit a change, please have a look at the contribution page!
- 📝 If you are a technical writer and you want to improve the documentation, please have a look at the contribution page!
Cubic keeps its dependency tree small and lean, acting as thin glue over proven tools rather than reinventing them.
At runtime Cubic has a single dependency: QEMU, the virtualization engine it drives to run every VM.
| Rust Crate | Usage |
|---|---|
| clap | Parse CLI commands, arguments, and flags |
| clap_complete | Generate shell completion scripts |
| crossterm | Terminal control for the interactive console and views |
| getrandom | Secure randomness for SSH key generation |
| regex | Parse image and instance names and scrape image version listings |
| rcgen | Generate the per-instance self-signed certificates for QEMU mTLS |
| reqwest | Download cloud images over HTTPS |
| russh | Pure-Rust SSH client to connect into VMs |
| russh-sftp | SFTP file transfer over the SSH connection |
| rustls | TLS for the QEMU mTLS control channel |
| rustls-pki-types | Shared certificate and key types backing rustls |
| serde | Derive serialization for config and QMP messages |
| serde_json | QMP protocol and firmware descriptor parsing |
| serde_yaml | Parse cloud-init and instance YAML |
| sha2 | Verify downloaded image checksums |
| sysinfo | Read the host username and detect running QEMU processes |
| thiserror | Derive the crate's error types |
| tokio | Async runtime for SSH and SFTP transfers |
| toml | Read and write the instance.toml config |